Shaping the subway microbiome through probiotic-based sanitation during the COVID-19 emergency: a pre-post case-control study

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the extent to which the public transportation environment, such as in subways, may be important for the transmission of potential pathogenic microbes among humans, with the possibility of rapidly impacting large numbers of people. For these reasons, sanitation p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Microbiome 2023-03, Vol.11 (1), p.64-64, Article 64
Main Authors: D'Accolti, Maria, Soffritti, Irene, Bini, Francesca, Mazziga, Eleonora, Cason, Carolina, Comar, Manola, Volta, Antonella, Bisi, Matteo, Fumagalli, Daniele, Mazzacane, Sante, Caselli, Elisabetta
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alcohol
Antimicrobial agents
Antimicrobial resistance
Bacteria
Case-Control Studies
Chlorine
Compliance
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Disease transmission
Disinfectants
Disinfectants - pharmacology
Disinfection
Disinfection & disinfectants
Environmental impact
Ethanol
Humans
Hygiene
Microbiomes
Microbiota
Pandemics
Pandemics - prevention & control
Pathogens
Performance evaluation
Probiotic sanitation
Probiotics
Railroads
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics
rRNA 16S
Sanitation
Sanitation - methods
SARS-CoV-2 - genetics
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Subway microbiome
Subways
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Summary:The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the extent to which the public transportation environment, such as in subways, may be important for the transmission of potential pathogenic microbes among humans, with the possibility of rapidly impacting large numbers of people. For these reasons, sanitation procedures, including massive use of chemical disinfection, were mandatorily introduced during the emergency and remain in place. However, most chemical disinfectants have temporary action and a high environmental impact, potentially enhancing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) of the treated microbes. By contrast, a biological and eco-sustainable probiotic-based sanitation (PBS) procedure was recently shown to stably shape the microbiome of treated environments, providing effective and long-term control of pathogens and AMR spread in addition to activity against SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19. Our study aims to assess the applicability and impact of PBS compared with chemical disinfectants based on their effects on the surface microbiome of a subway environment. The train microbiome was characterized by both culture-based and culture-independent molecular methods, including 16S rRNA NGS and real-time qPCR microarray, for profiling the train bacteriome and its resistome and to identify and quantify specific human pathogens. SARS-CoV-2 presence was also assessed in parallel using digital droplet PCR. The results showed a clear and significant decrease in bacterial and fungal pathogens (p 
ISSN:2049-2618
2049-2618
DOI:10.1186/s40168-023-01512-2